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Thursday, 21 March 2013

Yes! I have finally done it and released my first ever pattern all fresh from being test knitted and ready for downloading from Ravelry or you can also get it from the Patterns tab above

I've been playing around with ideas for easy to knit items aimed both at beginners who would like to try little bits of lace or cables and those who have more experience but want something quick and satisfying so I give to you the Ambient Cave Cowl.

The pattern is both charted and written out in full and uses a super
chunky yarn - the grey one is Hayfield Chunky with wool held double and
the blue one is Wendy Serenity Super Chunky which is knitted on 9mm
(US13) needles. It takes less than 3 hours to knit so could be done in a
evening while the wind blows and the snow falls.

This cowl was inspired by my love of caves, well more archaeological caves but you catch my drift. Caves in the UK have an ambient temperature of 11 degrees Celsius or 52 Fahrenheit. This means that within the body of the entrance cave and from about a metre of the mouth, the temperature is fairly constant no matter what's happening outside. If it has water running through the cave mouth it drops a few degrees but most archaeological caves do not have a waterway.

So 11 and 52, 52 and 11. This cowl was designed to utilise those numbers. The pattern is an 11 stitch repeat and is cast on over 52 stitches. The main design is also 11 stitches high. Also the reverse stocking stitch at the top and bottom of the cowl is 6 rows and 3 rows which is 5 + 1 and 1 + 2 (although I didn't realise this until I had finished the pattern).

But best of all, I think that the pattern looks like hills with little caves peaking out.